Large companies and organizations often require data to be communicated across large geographic areas. Accordingly, users and systems within the network may transmit data from one geographic location to another using services provided by a network provider. In some examples, customer edge routers provide an Ethernet interface between a customer's local area network (LAN) and the provider's core network, which includes one or more provider edge routers. In some examples, to configure the various customer edge routers, an Ethernet Local Management Interface (E-LMI) may be employed to configure the routers in the network from a central location. For example, a communications provider may use the provider edge routers to push configuration settings to the customer edge routers without the need of traveling to the individual customer sites.
In some communication system instances, a plurality of customers may use the same PE routers to link geographically different locations. Accordingly, as each customer edge device is initiated for the network, appropriate settings and preferences must be configured for both the customer edge router and corresponding provider edge router responsible for the communication. As a result, configuring each of the routers for the individual customer requirements may become burdensome due to the number of customers, the locations of the various routers, and the different settings required for each of the customers.
OVERVIEW
Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software to establish service configurations via an Ethernet Local Management Interface. In one example, a method of operating a communication system to configure Ethernet elements includes, in a requesting Ethernet element, determining identification data based on a media access control (MAC) address and a virtual local area network (VLAN) for the requesting Ethernet element. The method further provides, in the requesting Ethernet element, transferring, via Ethernet Local Management Interface (E-LMI), the identification data to a receiving Ethernet element. The method also includes, in the receiving Ethernet element, receiving the identification information, transferring a service configuration request based on the identification information to a configuration management system, and receiving a service configuration from the configuration management system.